Weapon Systems Acquisition Reform Act of 2009--Conference Report

Floor Speech

WEAPON SYSTEMS ACQUISITION REFORM ACT OF 2009--CONFERENCE REPORT -- (Senate - May 20, 2009)

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Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, the Weapon Systems Acquisition Reform Act of 2009 would strengthen and reform the Department of Defense acquisition processes by bringing increased accountability and transparency to major defense acquisition programs. Simply put, the bill would build discipline into the planning and requirements process, keep projects focused, help prevent cost overruns and schedule delays, and ultimately save taxpayer dollars.

I would like to thank Senators Carl Levin and John McCain, and Representatives Ike Skelton and John McHugh for their work on this important issue and their continued efforts to improve procurement at the Department of Defense. I was proud to join Senators Levin and McCain in co-sponsoring this bill in the Senate.

This legislation would improve DOD's planning and program oversight in many ways. First, the bill would create a new Senate-confirmed Director of Independent Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation to be the ``principal cost estimation official'' at the Department.

The bill also mandates that the Department carefully balance cost, schedule, and performance as part of the requirements development process, building discipline into the procurement process long before a request for proposals is issued or a contract is awarded.

I applaud the ``bright lines'' this legislation would establish regarding organizational conflicts of interest by DOD contractors. These reforms would strengthen the wall between government employees and contractors, helping to ensure that ethical boundaries are respected. While contractors are important partners with military and civilian employees at DOD, their roles and responsibilities must be well defined and free of conflicts of interest as they undertake their critical work supporting our Nation's military.

I appreciate the conferees including an amendment that I offered on the floor with Senator Claire McCaskill regarding earned value management, EVM. EVM provides important visibility into the scope, schedule, and cost of a program in a single integrated system, and when properly applied, EVM
can provide an early warning of performance problems.

GAO has observed that contractor reporting on EVM often lacks consistency, leading to inaccurate data and faulty application of the EVM metric. In other words, garbage in, garbage out.

The conference report would require that the Department of Defense issue an implementation plan for applying EVM consistently and reliably to all projects that use this project management tool.

The implementation plan would also provide enforcement mechanisms to ensure that contractors establish and use approved EVM systems and require DOD to consider the quality of the contractor's EVM systems and reporting in the past performance evaluation for a contract. With improved EVM data quality, both the government and the contractor will be able to improve program oversight, leading to better acquisition outcomes.

The conference report would strengthen the Department's acquisition planning, increase and improve program oversight, and help prevent contracting waste, fraud, and mismanagement. Ultimately, it will help ensure that our military personnel have the equipment they need, when they need it, and that tax dollars are not wasted on programs that were doomed to fail.

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